Comics community takes a stand against AI
He opened his Facebook business page for the usual reason. A comic book creator, after all, uses technology to showcase their work and network with others. On that day, however, Elias Chatzoudis “connected” with something else: His colleagues from America, where he lives and works, shared a sketch – a pinup girl – which had been created with the help of artificial intelligence and looked very similar to an older one of his own. He was asked if he knew of it; “no” was the answer. And Elias made a post where he contrasted the two images and among other things noted: “What is art to me? When I draw, I feel joy, I have a creative energy and the satisfaction of having created something from start to finish.”
Elias’ original work was the cover of his own artbook titled “Hallowitches.” It’s happened to him before though, he tells Kathimerini today. It doesn’t scare him professionally yet – he has his audience. “I did, however, create the post for young artists, who are just starting out,” he adds, “because I want them to understand that artificial intelligence is not just another tool, like Photoshop.
It doesn’t draw, but it steals millions of other people’s images that have been drawn before it and creates a fake image. The person doing this could be anyone, even someone who can’t draw. But they are not an artist.”
‘You can ‘feed’ AI with a creator’s work, instruct it to ‘make something like this’ and sell the result as your own,’ says comic artist Yannis Rubulias
How exactly does it work? “There are several applications,” explains comic artist Yannis Rubulias. “The first one was Midjourney, and now it’s Stable Diffusion and many others. Because the legislative framework doesn’t cover us, such an application can suck in anything that is freely circulating on the internet. You can ‘feed’ AI with a creator’s work, instruct it to ‘make something like this’ and sell the result as your own. A colleague’s cover that was copied was reproduced with the exact same theme and position, but just had a different color.
There are companies that have fired illustrators halfway through a job because they could give the AI program data with the creator’s attributes and thus have zero cost in illustrating a book.”
The issue has alarmed the Greek ninth art community. The Comicdom Con Athens festival, which will take place at Technopolis on May 17-19, has announced that it is banning the use, reproduction and sale of comic books produced in part or in whole using machines or AI applications.
“We made this decision in order to support the artists’ efforts and to not contribute to the creation of a dystopian market, in which works created by the push of a button will be sold next to the works of professionals who have worked hard to master their skills,” Elias Katirtzigianoglou, program director of Comicdom Con, tells Kathimerini, adding that works created with AI were already being sold at some festivals and that there is a Greek magazine with illustrated stories in circulation featuring covers and interior designs created in this way.
The reference to the labor that the skill requires is significant. Rubulias stresses that the comic artist “has worked for 20 years or more to make their style distinctive and their own,” while the machine merely simulates an artist – “it’s not art, it’s simulation,” says the artist.
Katirtzigianoglou explains that AI applications can of course also be based on “mixing pre-existing works” by many artists, who have not necessarily consented to their work being used. “Such programs can now scan the entire internet, take sketches from various artists and within seconds present you with a mishmash of various creators. The final drawing is perfect. But to the experienced eye it looks like it’s AI.”
